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Ender's Shadow
Like most geeks of my age, I greatly enjoyed the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. This book describes the story of a child (named Ender) who is selected at the age of six for special training to lead an army against an alien species. Ender, like most geeks, experienced profound isolation from most of his contemporaries -- in part because of his exceptional intelligence.
Ender's Game was followed by three sequels. None of the sequels were as good as the original; in them, Ender lost his edge and became a relatively moderate man rather than a brilliant child. Because of this, I was frankly not expecting much from Card's latest attempt. Especially Since Ender's Shadow does something that is almost unprecedented in fiction: it re-tells the events of Ender's Game from the perspective of a relatively minor character in Ender's Game.
My first thought when I heard the premise of this book was "Oh no... Card has turned into another Piers Anthony". I thought that Card was probably beating a great story and a good fictional "universe" to death by trying to go to the bank with it too many times.
I was pleasently surprised. While Ender's Shadow recounts the same basic events reported in Ender's Game, it does them in a genuinely fresh manner; from a fresh point of view. When Robert Heinlein tried to retell stories in his later books, the result was always horrible, hackneyed plots. Card has succesfully avoided this pitfall, mainly by adding substantial original material not found in Ender's Game. This book doesn't just try to connect with Ender's Game. It has its own story to tell.
Most importantly, this book is not about Ender Wiggin: it is about Bean. It starts with Bean, as a child of around four ("he thinks") on the streets of Rotterdam. The first section of the book gives us a glimpse of Bean's life as a child, without parents, on the streets of Rotterdam. It is not long before Bean is under mortal danger from an older child on the streets, and is fortunate enought to make his way into Battle School through little more than good luck.
In Battle School, Bean is like a second Ender. He is as bright as Ender. However, unlike Ender, Bean is isolated from the students and in league with the teachers. It is made clear throughout that Bean is the second string; that he is there in case Ender fails and his primary task is often to make sure that Ender does not fail.
This arrangement brings out Card's peculiar genius as writer: writing about brilliant children in a way that is actually reminiscient of what brilliant children have actually experienced. Bean, like most geeks, experiences profound isolation. Yet, somehow he thrives on this. Some of his abilities (for example a remarkable ability for logical induction) remind me of the things which isolated me in my youth.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed Ender's Shadow for the same reasons that I enjoyed Ender's Game: great writing, good plot, and excellent characters. Most of all, like its predecessor, Ender's Shadowreminds me that I am not in fact alone in the memories of my school years; that at least one writer must have experienced the isolation that I felt because he can write about it so well.
Dave Hauser (boog3r)'s Review
I think the hardest part about writing a review on a good SciFi book is that you can't candidly discuss details on the subject matter. You end up with a nice paradox: How to convince the reader the book was actually good without telling much about the subject matter. You must instead rely upon the delivery and tale-weaving skill of the author while glossing over the details of the first twenty pages of the book for bait.
My experience with Card's writing is not complete, but what stories of his I have managed to read have sent my imagination places few other authors have managed. Heinlein and Card both take my mind and heart for great roller coaster rides through a menagerie of worlds. Ender's Shadow is what you might call a 'synquel' to Ender's Game. It takes the life of Bean and tells the same tale through his eyes. An interesting and very daunting task considering the magnitude of Ender's game. I believe Card delivered with a full platter, maybe out-doing Ender's Game a little too much.
Bean is a small child living in poverty on the streets of a futuristic Rotterdam. He is a boy with an interesting history and an even more interesting future. Facing certain starvation he joins a 'family' comprised of other maligned children formed on the street and rides the wave to a spot in Battle School. While there he learns about, studies and eventually meets and befriends the star of Ender's Game, Ender Wiggin. They unite in a quest to tame Battle School and prepare for a war against the 'Buggers' or Formics, a species of insectoids governed by a hive mind. Throughout the book there are numerous intertwinings, embellishments and explanations of events from Ender's Game; but told from a different viewpoint so as to be completely new. If it has been a while since you have read Ender's Game, much of it will be new and you will find yourself looking for that old, beat up copy you have lying around.
Downs
If anything might be wrong with this book it is the power Card bestows upon Bean. From what you get out of the first book it seems Ender is the main man running the show, he is the commander and the others are subordinates (not to mention good friends). I can't be sure if it was indeed Card's plan to elaborate on Ender's story and place Bean as the glue-holding-everyone-together. In many ways Bean eclipses Ender in certain skills but they both have their own independent strong points.
One thing Card should have incorporated was hyperlinks to corresponding passages between the two books. I'll be looking eagerly for this...
Ups
This book rocks! It paints a whole new picture of a world many of us love and cleans up a canvas that was already subjected to the brush. Card deftly intertwines a new story into an old and meshes them together into a new entity. A lot of work went into cross-referencing the two story lines and then individual quotes. Card even went to the trouble of adding new insight on characters that appear later in the series as having had contact with Bean during his stint on the streets of Rotterdam.
Slants
I admire Card himself through his writings, it warms me to think there are people who try to write without bias on a certain subject when advantage can be taken. If Card is guilty of this commonality I see it mainly as altruism on his part, trying to improve humanity in his small part through his books. One undertone does surface through most of his books: faith or religion. Parts of his stories will almost always have a thought on faith or theology. Sometimes it is educational in nature, rarely is it preachy. More often it enhances and adds to the story where other authors might use it to thump the proverbial soapbox.
In the Future
If Card is willing and imparts upon us a new volume in the Ender Saga, I would love a telling of the political intrigue Demosthenes and Locke play and how Achilles becomes a weak link in the Russian play for power.
Purchase this book at Amazon
I have to disagree with Mr. Narkinsky's opinion of the Card's previous books on the life of Ender Wiggin. Specifically, he says something to the effect that after Ender's Game, Ender lost his edge. What I got out of those books is that Ender was horrified by the way he had exterminated the buggers, and suffered from the guild of havinf removed an intelligent life form from the universe. Also, he discovered that he just wanted to lead a life of anonymity, rather than be constantly recognized as the boy who killed off the buggers. Ender simply becomes more human, and more spiritual. In my opinion, these books were not intended to portray Ender as a hero, but rather to portray him as a human being who posesses extraordinary intelligence, and also who develops a powerful moral conscience.
Let's not confuse Card with a writer of "action" fiction. In nearly all of Card's books, there is an underlying exposure of different aspects of humanity that is missing in the writings of most others. Not that Card has any special insight into humanity, he just has a unique approach to reminding us that we're all just human under whatever facade we have built up. Before reading Card, I had this idea that Mormons have oddball ideas about religion (I still think that) and should be ignored and avoided. Card has wrenched me out of that position a bit.
The first three to four chapters are online HERE.
ACK